Dear Editor,
The ‘mobile workers’ laws are supposed to allow manufacturers to acquire workers at peak season, without encumbering employers with contractual obligations and employer tax liability they would otherwise be responsible for in permanent contracts.
The law also states the maximum duration a person can work before they must be considered regular workers, and  the minimum time between contracts before they can return to the employer as a ‘mobile worker’.
The trouble is, these laws that are there to accommodate a temporary boom in production, are being cynically manipulated by some of our area’s largest employers, to keep production costs at a minimum in on-going production forecasts. I’ve spoken with a number of employees working through recruitment agencies for a number of employers, subject to the ‘mobile worker’ laws. The accounts I’ve heard have been identical in every case.
It is bad enough that an employee should struggle on a permanent contract earning the punishingly low minimum wage. The mobile workers’ are pushed further into abject destitution, typically earning poverty wages for only 6-8 months of the year. At peak season, they are without notice required to work punishingly long hours, and see little of that extra income in their wages because of the pro-rata tax system.
Many ‘mobile workers’ work through injury and illness because time off would see them ‘released from there contracts’ as many have witnessed happen to their former colleagues. The workers I spoke with had to work through the recent season of bank holidays for standard time, while workers employed directly by the company enjoyed a paid public holiday off work.
The facilitators of this practise are largely parasite employment proxies such as recruitment agencies. While it is legal, I for one feel deeply uncomfortable and ashamed at what I’ve witnessed in local industry. Some employers are to be applauded for offering proper contracts and decent terms and conditions to all of their employees, while others secure contractual rights for a small number of retained employees, and treat their ‘mobile workers’ as second class citizens.
A Newton Aycliffe Worker.